In the field of hair care, it is frequently necessary to employ a curling rod or "wave rod" in the practice of providing a "permanent wave" to a person's hair. Prior art devices generally have certain features in common with one another. Specifically, when it is necessary to roll a tress of hair to a set position, the hair is generally wound about a rod or spool to a point where the rod is proximal to the scalp, at which time a clamp is impressed on the wound tress thereby binding the hair to the rod so that the rod cannot unroll and otherwise distort the wound tress.
One most common prior art device is a spool having an elastic band attached to one end which may hang free from the spool, and a cylindrical plug is attached to the distal end of the elastic band. An axial hole is provided through the spool and, after a tress has been wound on the spool, in croquignole fashion, that is, wound on itself, the elastic band is drawn axially across the wound tress and the plug is inserted in the bore of the spool at the end of the spool opposite the attached band.
The elastic band which is now tensioned across the wound tress, creates a groove along the hairs, conforming to the band, and the groove may become set in the hair, causing an undesired wave form and other potential deleterious effects. For example, the comfort of the wearer of the prior art wave rod may be affected by a "pulling" on the individual hairs by the impressed elastic band. Further, in one common method of permanent waving, a softener is applied to the hair which has been then wound on the wave rod and thus the groove is easily impressed on the softened hairs. At a still later time, it may become necessary to apply a chemical to the curled hair tresses which will reharden the individual hair shafts and reconstitute them to their normal texture. At the time of rehardening, the groove is more permanently set in the curled hair, which may give rise to a stress point in the hair, most often near the scalp. The occurrence of the stress points on the hairs may often cause consequential breakage of the hairs at the stress points at various times after curling. The damaged hairs are subject to stress and strain of combing, brushing, dressing and washing, which accentuate the hair damage.
A novel prior art device was developed to combat the effects of the above-discussed prior art design, that is, to remove the clip or banding means which are generally drawn across the curled tress. U.S. Pat. No. 2,852,029 sets forth an attempt at solving the problem of the prior art devices by means of providing a tubular spool having nubs about an aperture in each end, and having an elastic band drawn through a central bore in the spool, the ends of the band being attached to two pivotable levers, respectively. It is envisioned that when rolling a hair tress, the levers will be colinear with the axis of the spool until such point as it is desired to lock the curl. At such time, the levers are slipped to a position 90.degree. to the central axis of the spool, at which time the levers engage the locking lugs at the spool end, creating an arm about the spool end. The arm is designed to be impressed against the scalp of the user thereby providing a countertorque arm to prevent the spool from unwinding.
Certain difficulties are inherent in the design of the aforementioned patent. For example, the unit is composed of multiple pieces and is somewhat difficult to assemble. Furthermore, when the levers extend axially from the spool ends, it is most difficult and cumbersome for the person winding the hair to grasp the ends of the spool while winding the hair and yet provide for clearance for the levers to extend into the palm areas of the hands. Further, when applying the locking levers, it is difficult to grasp the spool and move each of the two levers at the same time. In addition, the levers possibly will not reach a common reacting surface since the scalp may be irregularly shaped, or the levers may not be parallel to one another, and hence only one lever may bear against the scalp while the other lever is jutting forth into space, possibly interfering with adjacent curling rods.
Applicant has obviated the difficulties inherent in the prior art devices by his novel design.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wave rod which will not rely on locking means impressed on the wound tress to prevent subsequent unrolling of the wave rod.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a low cost, easy to use, wave rod system.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a wave rod system wherein the rods may be linked to one another to prevent subsequent unrolling of the wave rods, while not relying on locking means impressed on the hair to prevent such unrolling.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wave rod system wherein the wave rods may be linked to one another and arrayed in such fashion as to give greater flexibility in design styling.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wave rod system whereby varying sizes of wave rods may employ a common locking member freely interchanged with said wave rods, and capable of locking varied wave rods together.